hristianity, what the author asserts of its beginnings can be accepted as
true for a much earlier time. We already know that one of the first works
of mysticism consists in the education of the conscience, in a most subtle
purification of this judicial inner eye. The claims of the psychoanalyst
are there fulfilled to the uttermost.] Instead of many examples I gladly
quote a single one, but an instructive exposition by Walter Hitton, a
great master of the contemplative life, from his "Scala Perfectionis" as
Beaumont (Tract. v. Gust. pub. 1721, pp. 188 ff.) renders it. Thus he
writes: "From what I said we can to some extent perceive that visions and
revelations, or any kind of spirit in bodily appearance, or in the
imagination in sleep or waking, or any other sensation in the bodily
senses that are, as it were, spiritually performed, either through a sound
in the ears or taste in the mouth or smell in the nose, or any other
perceptible heat of fiery quality that warms the breast or any other part
of the body, or any other thing that can be felt by a bodily sense, even
if it is not so refreshing and agreeable, all this is not contemplation or
observation; but in respect of the spiritual virtues, and those of
celestial perception and love towards God, which accompany true
contemplation, only evil secondary matters, even if they appear to be
laudable and good. All such kinds of sensation may be good if produced by
a good angel, but may, however, proceed in a deceptive manner, from the
impositions of a bad angel, if he disguises himself as an angel of light.
For the devil can imitate in bodily sensations exactly the same things
that a good angel can accomplish. Indeed, just as the good angels come
with light, so can the devil do also. And just as he can fabricate this in
things that appear to the eyes, so he can bring it to pass in the other
senses. The man who has perceived both can best say which is good and
which is evil. But whoever knows neither or only one, can very easily be
deceived."

Externally, in the sense quality, they are all similar, but internally
they are very different. And therefore we should not too strongly desire
them, nor lightly maintain that the soul can distinguish between the good
and evil by the spirit of difference, so that it may not be deceived. As
St. John says: "Believe not every spirit, but prove it first whether it be
of God or not." And to know whether the perception of the bodily sense is
g